Turkey hopes EU aspirations will be rewarded for ‘yes’ vote

Ankara calls for Union talks date, end of northern Cyprus sanctions

A Turk Cypriot reads a local paper showing that Turkish Cypriots voted ‘yes’ while Greek Cypriots voted ‘no,’ yesterday.

By Suzan Fraser - The Associated Press

ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday the European Union should reward Turkey and Turkish Cypriots for their positive stance in the referendum on a UN plan to reunite the island, which Turkish Cypriots endorsed and Greek Cypriots rejected.

For Turkey, that would mean a EU decision to start long-awaited membership negotiations, and for Turkish Cypriots an end to their decades of political and economic isolation.

Although technically not a condition for Turkish EU membership, EU officials have warned Turkey that its hopes to open membership talks could falter unless it helped resolve the 30-year division of the island. EU leaders make their decision in December on whether to approve Turkey’s candidacy.

Erdogan’s government, which has made EU membership a top priority, was instrumental in reviving reunification talks and encouraged Turkish Cypriots to vote “yes” in Saturday’s referendum.

“We believe that the steps that we took should count as positive marks for Turkey,” Erdogan said. “We expect the great step that we have taken will be met with the same warm approach... We have faith that we shall get the response we deserve in the EU platform,” Erdogan said.

Final results showed that despite American and European support for the UN plan, 76 percent of Greek Cypriots voted “no” while the Turkish-Cypriot vote was 65 percent “yes.” The referendum required approval from both sides in order for the UN plan to come into effect.

“It is an undeniable fact that the Turkish side was the active and constructive side for a Cyprus solution,” Erdogan said. “I believe that the policy of isolating, of alienating (Turkish Cypriots) will now come to an end.”

Erdogan’s reaction was echoed in major Turkish newspapers.

“Keep your promise Europe,” read the headline in the Aksam newspaper.

The mass circulation daily Hurriyet newspaper commented, “Turks have proven to the world that they are the side that is taking steps toward a solution.”

The results of the referenda means Cyprus will not join the European Union on May 1 as a united state and that EU laws and benefits will apply only to the Greek-Cypriot side.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also said the results should mean an end to international political and economic isolation for the Turkish-Cypriot north, which is recognized as a state only by Turkey. Some 40,000 Turkish troops also remain in the island’s north.